


The Phantabulous Emancipation Of One Vladimir Masters

by GothMoth



Series: Phantom Phang Phucking Phreaking Phantastical Phabulous Phic Phight Phics 2.0 (The 2020 Edition) [15]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bad Decisions, Danny's A Little Too Forgiving, Gen, Science Experiments, Second Chances, Unethical Experimentation, cloning, science gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Vlad’s done plenty of questionable things with Danny’s DNA and he’s about to learn just how bad and how far, he was willing to take it
Series: Phantom Phang Phucking Phreaking Phantastical Phabulous Phic Phight Phics 2.0 (The 2020 Edition) [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685341
Comments: 16
Kudos: 99
Collections: Phic Phight!





	The Phantabulous Emancipation Of One Vladimir Masters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Lord_of_Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lord_of_Chaos/gifts), [AQ110](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQ110/gifts).



_‘April 21st. Sometimes there are things we must ask ourselves if they should be done. And I believe that if you find such a thing, you should do it without hesitation or remorse‘_

Danny drops the simple red notebook, leans back, and shivers before side-eyeing the man curled in on himself on an expensive oversized bed. Danny mumbles, “what the absolute _fuck_ Vlad”. Looking back to the journal and touching it faintly, only to shove it away. He doesn’t want to read that anymore, but undoubtedly the words will keep replaying.

Getting up and floating just enough to avoid creating the sounds of footsteps, moving to the bed and cringing when Vlad groans and curls in on himself just a little more. He knew enough of being... _split_... to know how much that alone _sucked_. But also to... to just... Ancients fuck Vlad. 

_‘It’ll be without a doubt the best thing you’ve ever done. Even if it kills you, or if the world wages war against you for it’_

He swallows and decides he should probably actually talk to the man. See if he can get coherent responses or something. Well, it was now or never, “hey? You okay? Even remotely?”. 

_‘Even if you must leave victims in your wake, it matters not. The world will not remember their names, the world never truly remembers the fallen. And it never will. You ought not bother yourself with remembering either’_

Vlad groans back but makes no move to look to him. “I am... not fine”. 

“Uh, obviously”, Danny rubs his neck and sighs. At least he could talk even a little. “Are you in any pain? Or want anything? What do you remember?”.

‘ _Regardless of how the questions are framed, few will know anything of who they were. But the ones who **always** answer ‘should I’ with yes, consequences be damned. Will exist on in memory always. An excellent outcome indeed’. _

Vlad shudders but moves to grab at his head. Danny can’t resist the quip, “don't think too hard, you’re hurting yourself”. And promptly gets shot by an ecto-beam into the wall. He’s more concerned with its colour though. Righting himself a little, “green?”, then looks to Vlad, “you just shot a _green_ ecto-beam”. Glancing to the notebook, “Ancients you insane fruitloop. You _seriously actually did that_ ”. Vlad only groans in response.

_‘And yet the best outcome will always be power and dominion. **Always**. When power is involved there is no ‘should’ or ‘could’ only ‘ **will** ’. With it you can break the world, mould it to your mind. With it you can make every ‘should I’ an absolute resounding ‘YES’. With power, any restraint or apprehension you may feel will suffer the quick and brutal death they deserve. And so it is with power being the end result of my current ‘should I’, that I move forward’_

Danny floats back over, he understands on some level _why_ Vlad would do something like this. He was power-hungry. He was always looking to better his abilities and to be a step above _everyone_. 

_‘That I go where I can not return from. I knew it was possible and I have what I need. I have **him** ’_

Danny also knew Vlad wanted to be a step above him, Plasmius above Phantom. They were the only natural halfas after all. The only thing to compare each other to. And Vlad didn’t like what he saw in that comparison. 

_‘Phantom, even on the most basic genetic level, is more powerful and manipulatable. More room for growth and variation. Power untapped and the biggest ‘should I’ that I have ever known. No. He is the biggest ‘should I’ this world has known. That this universe has known’_

It is why Vlad tried this with his DNA, with Phantom’s DNA. Not his own, not Plasmius’s. He can’t help but cringe, all those kids, the _lab rats._

_‘If you have a ‘should I’ and aren’t such a fool as to not chase it. Then if you need the living, go for the children. Always the children. They are easy, mouldable. Yet imperfect. A near clean slate to work with. Especially if it’s their DNA one’s after. And exactly therein lies my goal’._

The children Vlad had used to forge those clones, the ones that Danny himself had ultimately _killed_. In more ways than one. They had all been someone, and his DNA had erased that. 

_‘I may have failed in reaching for this ‘should I’ before. So so many children lost. Such a shame to waste resources. But failure is only a blessing to teach you the way forward. Even the most minor success, even if it **dissolved** into failure, should spur you onward’_

Vlad effectively killed their minds and because the nutcase couldn’t be bothered to focus on fixing, on stabilising, them, they also died physically too. Danny shivers to himself and makes a mental note to figure out who Elle used to be. Not that Danny could truly be mad with the man at the moment, watching him groan again. He never would have imagined Vlad would truly go that far. That in this timeline he was that far gone. 

_‘Eventually you will get there. And that is why I am writing this now. Because things have **changed**. As things in life so often do. And I have acquired the mid-morph sample I sought. So now it comes down to a simple matter of fact. The fact is thus: Phantom is more advanced than Plasmius. Phantom is more powerful than Plasmius’_

Danny shouldn’t be shocked, especially when the man proved he didn’t have an end to his darkest desires and emotions. 

_‘And there is nothing I won’t do for the one thing anyone with sense will do anything for: power. Power seen absolute. Power with the kind of permanence to lord over the universe forever. Power that is at its core a crime against nature but will become the king of it. Such power is the most grand of ‘should I’ and requires true sacrifice. And after all, I've always been one for a risk or two’._

Looking at Vlad as he mutters, “that... may have... been a mistake”. Danny thinks that’s pretty fucking obviously the case. Even thinking up this kind of crazed plot was a mistake. Everything to do with messing with DNA, Danny’s DNA especially, was a mistake. 

_‘Though heed my words, don’t take a risk foolishly. You can’t do as I have. As I will. For as a halfa myself, I know what I’m looking at, what I am dealing with. I am neither a child nor inexperienced. I need not fear the risk of losing myself or mind to the genetics of a **child**. It’s simple logic that subjugating the introduced DNA will not be an issue’_

Danny could figure out _exactly_ what Vlad did. The clawed gauntlets, which yes he destroyed on sight, made one half of Vlad’s insane plan obvious. 

_‘The first action, of course, is to render any subjects a blank slate. Even if the victim you’ve chosen is yourself. And in this case, the subject must be free of all forms of ecto-contamination or ectoplasm. However, and know I note this with a knowing smile, the more and longer a subject has had ecto-contamination the more their ghost will affect the appearance and behaviour of the introduced DNA. The little girl was proof enough of that’_

Danny grabs a chair and sits down with a sigh. The man _took out_ Plasmius-

_‘Introduce enough of another ghosts ectoplasm and the samples will become submissive enough. Though a tip to note: invest in good earplugs if your future involves subjects of the living kind. They make an unfortunate amount of noise’_

-melted Plasmius down and ‘introduced’ the leftovers in with whatever latest sample of Phantom he’d taken. And then, like an insane person, given the supposedly ‘submissive’ DNA to _himself_. The only positive Danny thinks, is that the only one Vlad stood to hurt this time, was himself. 

_‘And if you seek to truly be grand and powerful. Someone who chases after ‘should I’s with wild abandon and the desire to cement that you will never ever fail. Invest in a good pain tolerance. You’ll never know when you’ll have to **tear out** a bit of yourself. We are our own best resource after all’_

Paying attention to Vlad in the moment again as he groans again before white light flashes around his waist. The nutjob _actually did it._ Ancients that was weird. And insane. Completely insane. 

_‘While preserving the resource that is ourselves is quite important, others are only a resource to consume and then do away with the useless scraps. And that is what I am to do now. Consume what I want and do away with the scraps of personality and mind’_

Watching the change and openly gaping at the differences. Ember would laugh over his hairstyle staying exactly the same as his human form but with a flaming ponytail; even stayed white. Little too Dan for Danny to really be alright with. 

He was still skinny, instead of the filled out chest Plasmius had. Still had a vampire-espue outfit, yet with whites and blacks swapped; and the cape is entirely gone. Light teal skin swapped for light blue, yet the same red eyes, sharp fangs, and pointed ears. 

_‘Take his form, but not his mind. Take Phantom’s power and mould it into my own. Mould it under the command of my mind and self. The ultimate being. It’s only too bad Plasmius was a resource that had to be removed and obliterated first. Oh well’._

Danny understands why the teeth and ears don’t change, he’ll have those ‘characteristics’ in a year or so. Tensing and shaking his head, pushing down any feelings of sympathy for the psychopath. As Vlad pushes himself up, _green_ energy pulsing around his hands. 

Vlad floats upright and turns his hands over with a sharp smile before looking around, red eyes settling on Danny. 

_‘And then Phantom will either stand by my side or **fall** as just more canon fader in the way of my desires. His existence is a ‘should I’ I face with glee and no trace of trepidation’_

Danny clenches his fist, ready for a serious battle. He can sense Vlad is much _much_ stronger than he once was. Danny’s pretty sure he’s still stronger than the old man and has experience with his... Phantoms?... power. But Danny’s battle, that was closer to a one on one war, with Dan made it very clear fighting someone with his own abilities was absolute Hell. He knew with his powers Danny could take the world if he wanted. Destroy it or protect it. Rule it or guide it. And Vlad had that now. 

_‘Sometimes there are things we must ask ourselves if they should be done. And with a simple needle. A small injection. Over the backdrop of an ectoplasm splatter wall. I will shout “I will and have done it! And I will do it again and again and again!” for the world to hear. And the world will bend before my actualised desires’_

He didn’t expect Vlad to simply say, “where am I?”. 

“Uhhh, your house?”. 

Vlad looks around and genuinely seems puzzled. The Hell? Danny just watches as Vlad notices his bedroom mirror and floats over to it. “Is that me?”. 

Danny blinks, “yes?”. Oh... oh wow. Vlad _completely fucked up_. 

_‘April 20th. It is our selves. Our mind and personality. That is our very being. Everything it touches we make ours. Objects and bodies. Whichever it is, to us they truly belong. By exerting our self over them, we make them ours. It’s simply a matter of will and personality to take what is ours’_

Vlad looks back to him, looking him over and looking back to the mirror, “we look alike, I image we're related then?”. 

Oh Vlad really really Fucked up. Capital F fucked up. Well, technically the man was right. He literally made Danny’s DNA part of himself. “More or less”. 

Vlad looks to him, “interesting story there I’m guessing”, tilting his head, “I feel you don’t particularly like me. Why?”. Looking back to the mirror, “I’m older than you, so I’m guessing you’re a cousin or son perhaps”, tilting his head and humming, “I think I prefer the second option”. 

_‘That is something that **child** still yet fails to understand. That town, it’s buildings and lands, is his, yet he does not claim it. Those ‘friends’ are bodies that are his, yet he lets them do as they please. He will be taught better. In time and with power. I will make a proper son of him yet’_

Danny can’t help the knee jerk reaction of, “I’m not your son”, before shaking his head and floating next to the man. “Neither actually. You were... merged with my DNA an hour or so ago”. 

Vlad side-eyes him, “I take it you weren’t willing in that?”, tilting his head, “I did this to myself, didn’t I? Why would I do that?”. 

_‘Whether the boy wishes it or not. He is mine and I am his. Though I am the one with the power and the willingness to take that which is mine. I need not ask myself why and others have no place. Even he knows as such now’_

Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “because that’s what psychopathic nut case crazed up fruit loops do. They do crazy things. Just didn’t work out the way you thought it would”. 

“I’m guessing I was supposed to remember this place, and... who I am?”. 

Danny can’t help grimacing at that and feeling rather sorry for him, “yeah... um, sorry”. 

Vlad side-eyes him again, “why would you say sorry?”, tilting his head, “guess it would be pretty easy to feel sympathy for someone who messed themselves up”. 

Danny can’t help feeling a little thrown hearing Vlad of all people saying that. “Yeah....”. 

_‘One thing anyone should note is that apologies have no place in your vocabulary. They are a weakness and I will never get why the child feels the need to bother with them. We should take as we wish without care nor remorse. Allowing either is a weakness and a loss of power that I myself shall not tolerate. No others should tolerate it either. But then again, most of the world is populated with fools’_

Vlad frowns at him, “I wasn’t a good person, was I? You’ve implied as much”. 

Danny snorts, “understatement buddy”. Following Vlad with his eyes as Vlad floats over to the journal. “I wouldn’t. It’ll explain things yeah. But your... personality, is more like mine now I think. You won’t like what you read”. 

Vlad grimaced down at the notebook, “was I that bad?”. 

_‘I am no such fool and for that, I will gladly make myself a god. It’s hardly like that is a difficult task to achieve, the living are gullible that way and the dead so easy to sway. The boy is more difficult, a show of his true place perhaps? We should stand as gods together, after all. But he is sympathetic to the ways of the fools and the swayed. He will have to change’._

“Yeah. Doesn’t mean you have to be though”, Danny puts on a smile -second chances Fenton, _‘I learned what a fool **I** had been’_, second chances- and floats over to him, “you could make this a new start?”, looking to the journal, “you did want me as family and you wanted power, you got those really. They just changed you more than you wanted or planned. So I guess it’s up to you want to do know”. 

“I don’t know what I want”.

Danny absolutely feels bad hearing that. Vlad always knew what he wanted, always had a plan, always had a future. It was Danny who didn’t. “I could help you figure that out? Teach you the new you?”. 

_‘I will teach him till he does. Till he changes into something new and mine. Regardless of what parts of him need change, need repairing. I **always** get what I want. Or it will be eliminated from all of the universes equations’_

Vlad smiles at him, “I don’t see why not. Do I have anything else to do?”.

Danny looks around and shakes his head, “you... don’t really have anything but your money”, then adding as almost an afterthought, “and a cat”. 

“That seems lonely”.

Danny can’t help but laugh at that, “that’s what I always told you!”, then sighing, “but there are two people who would love to be your friends again”, rubbing his neck, “my parents actually. Guess you’re sorta related to them now too”. Danny is _not_ going to think about how insanely weird that is. 

_‘Maybe Madeleine will come with him, come with us, into the world and the new dawn I shall create and herald. Or I may simply make a new her as well. **I** can do whatever **I** want in the end’_

“That’s good?”.

Danny shakes his head, “honestly no, but it could be”. Then transforming back human, seemingly startling Vlad. “You can too, just pull in all that energy running around in your veins”. Smiling a bit when Vlad does manage it. Both of them watching the elder halfa flip his slightly younger-looking hands over a few times. He looked kinda like what Danny figures he’d look like in his thirties if he never worked out a day in his life or never got any kind of physical activity ever. 

_‘I could stand for presenting us three as lords of this world. Perfected in appearance and poised of course. Lithe and well-styled like that of a cat or viper. For let it be known, it’s the den of snakes people truly fear, not the one of the brutish bear. Yet another reason to do away with that oaf’_

Scrawny with black hair slicked back into a pointy ponytail. Still with the same Vlad facial hair and longer face. Same clothing too, didn’t fit him properly anymore though. He still looked kinda like the Vlad Danny knew. 

Vlad walks back over to the mirror, “so this is me as a... human? That sounds right”. 

Danny nods and stuffs his hands in his pants pockets, “yup, little different. More like me. Glad you didn’t forget _everything_ though. My parents don’t know about our ghost halves. It’s better that way”. 

Vlad turns to him and quirks an eyebrow, “dangerous knowledge. We’re... rare”. 

Danny nods, “yup. You and I are the only natural ones. Not sure you still count as natural though”. 

_‘It is nice when the beauty of nature makes the truth known. Shows brutes as brutes and snakes as snakes. It makes it so much simpler and enjoyable to know where and how to best aim sharp and poisoned fangs. And the rarest of snakes have no anti-venom, it can make the world its slave. A master of nature. So why pester yourself with worries over perverting nature? It is just another thing that is mine, to do with as I please. And as such, my name will never stand unremembered’_

Danny shrugs and walks to the bedroom door before looking back to him, “you’re name’s Vladimir by the way. You usually went by Vlad though”, rubbing his neck, “you might prefer a name more similar to mine now though. The other one went by Danielle for a while, she goes by Elle now”. 

Vlad tilts his head, “that name, ‘Vladimir’, doesn’t feel like it means anything to me. Yours is Daniel though, I know that. But you... prefer Danny. And really don’t like Dan”, frowning, “ _I_ really don’t like Dan”, frowning deeper, “I’m going to stop saying that name now”.

_‘Everyone remembers violence, war, and danger. Over peace, kindness, and soft friendliness. So why bother ourselves with the latter except to abuse it to achieve our desires’_

Danny grimaces, “please do. You could... go by Damir?”. 

He smiles and follows Danny out of the room, “I think I like that actually. You named Elle too, didn’t you?”.

Danny nods, “yeah, she’s like a daughter to me”, looking to him while he looks around his mansion with wide eyes, “she’s probably one of the only good things you’ve really done for me. Sorry”. 

Vlad? Damir? Whatever. Frowns at him, “I’d say sorry, but it would be rather empty since I don’t really know what I’d be apologising for”. 

Danny waves him off and goes to lean on the main doors, “it’s past. Still fucked up, but past. Just be better now, kay? And are you going with the... new name?”. 

_‘And then christen in your new accomplishments, your achieved desires, with a deserving title. Claim it as yours and tie it to you forevermore. It is the right of the strong, as the little badger will know’_

He nods, “yeah, I think so. I’m clearly not the same person”, walking over and sticking his head out the door, promptly blurting out as he looks around outside, “for the love of Gouda! I’m filthy stinkin’ rich!”.

Danny snorts, “well that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. You still swear using food”. 

“That’s good?”.

Danny shrugs, “no clue man. Elle’s not exactly like me either, so probably”.

Damir -that’s going to take some getting used to- nods and pulls his head back inside, grabbing at Danny’s arm sleeve as he goes to leave, “what do I do now?”, gesturing to himself, “with this?”, gesturing to the mansion, “and this?”.

_‘And he will know as well, that there is nothing I can not do. That he can not do. If he chooses to not be a fool. He may very well be a lost cause in that regard though. No matter. His fate is still mine to determine’_

Danny shrugs again, “you’re rich, you can do pretty much whatever you want. As for being a Phantom now? You dug the hole, you kinda need to deal with it yourself. But-”, Danny phases Damir’s phone out of its pocket and finds his contact number. Promptly changing the name from ‘little badger’ to ‘Danny’ before showing it to him, “-that’s my number, in case you don’t remember. Don’t isolate yourself, that was probably part of what went wrong with you before. As for the future, well, I guess we’ll just have to see”, smirking, “the future’s not set in stone you know”. 

_‘My future, my rule, my dominion. It is absolute. It is unwavering. His fate, her fate, the world’s fate; is mine. As tomorrow will show, as I play my most grand poker hand. As I knock over the world’s king. Beat the house and board. Become the new king of kings’_

Danny transforms and flies off, feeling he made the right decision at hearing Damir blurt out, “what is this made out of? Fucking gold?”. Even if he still felt a fair bit disturbed. Getting a text later about how Damir was ‘totally lost’ and offering Danny a quad because ‘no one needs this many, why do I have this many? What was wrong with me? Just _how many_ issues did I have?’. Pretty well squashed the rest of Danny’s doubt, promptly responding with both a detailed floor plan of the mansion and ‘it’s over 9000!’. 

**End.**

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Creators: The_Lord_of_Chaos and AQ110  
> Prompts: A halfa is half human and half ghost. Danny learns the dark truth of how Vlad created all of those fully grown clones. and False hope  
> *Title based on The Birds Of Prey*


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